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Private Calendar No. 778. 

I No. 2179. 



61sT Congress, | HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, i Report 

3d Session. ( 



ESTATE OF GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



February 16, 1911. 



-Committed to the Committee cjf the Whole House and ordered 
to be printed. 



Mr. Morse, from the Committee on Private Land Claims, submitted 

the following 



REPORT. 

[To accompany H. R. 5266.] 

The Committee on Private Land Claims, to which was referred the 
bill (H. R. 5266) to reimburse the estate of Gen. George Washington, 
havmg had the same under consideration, report it back to the House 
with an amendment which strikes out the preamble and the first 
section, and in lieu of the first section inserts the following: 

That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to 
issue patent to Robert E. Lee, junior, administrator de bonis non, with the will 
annexed, of the estate of General George Washington, three thousand one hundred 
acres of the public lands of the United States, to be selected by the said administrator, 
or his assigns, from the unreserved and nonmineral public lands of the United States; 
which shall be taken and received by said administrator as full compensation to the 
estate of General George Washington for the loss of his three thousand one hundred 
acres of land warrants and grants" made thereunder, and for any and all claims which 
his estate might or could make against the United States on account of land warrants 
or grants held by him, or his estate, upon warrants locateable northwest of the Ohio 
River, and for every and all claims whatsoever. 

The committee recommends that the bill as amended do pass. 

The claim of the heirs of George Washington against the United 
States for reimbursement for the loss of lands of his in the State of 
Ohio is one of absorbing interest. 

At the close of the Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington 
was the owmer of a 3,000-acre land warrant, purchased by him from 
one John Rootes. 

On December 7, 1763, Lord Dunmore, then governor of the royal 
colony of Virginia, issued a land warrant to John Rootes for 3,000 
acres'of land to be located by him on the lands of the colony north- 
west of the Ohio River. This warrant was issued in accordance with 
the proclamation of King George III in 1763. 

On January 5, 1785, the Legislature of the State of Virginia passed 
a joint resolution which provided that all persons who had served in 



2 . ESTATE OF GEX. GEORGE WASHIXGTOjST. 

• 

the Armies of the United States from May 1, 1779, until the close of 
the Revolutionary War, and had a land warrant in his possession by 
right or by assignment before May 1, 1779, might exchange the same 
with the register of the land office for a warrant; that he should be 
permitted to locate on vacant land reserved on the western side of 
the Ohio River for officers and soldiers of the Continental Army. 

Gen. Washington, on February 14, 1785, changed his old warrant 
for a new one under this joint resolution and obtained a 3,000-acre 
continental line land warrant from the land office of the State of 
Virginia. 

Some time during or before the summer of 1787, Gen. Washington 
purchased another small land warrant, one for 100 acres of land, 
which had been issued to one Thomas Cope for services in the conti- 
nental fine from Virginia. 

In the summer of 1787, Gen. Washington placed these two warrants 
in the hands of Col. John O'Bannon, a deputy surveyor of the Vir- 
ginia military district of Ohio, for location, and directed their location 
in tiie Virginia military district northwest of the Ohio River. 

Col. John O'Bannon entered land for Gen. Washington as follows: 
On January 17, 1788, by survey number 1650, 839 acres, in what is 
now Franklin ToMiiship, Clermont County, Ohio. On May 13, 1788, 
he entered 1,235 acres in the same county; on May 12, 1788, he 
entered 977 acres, 926 acres of which was made on the 3,000-acre 
warrant and 51 acres of which was made on the Thomas Cope warrant 
of 100 acres. 

Thus it will be seen that entries were made for 3,051 acres of the 
3,100 acres which Gen. IVashington was entitled to patent. 

On and between April 4, 1788, and May 26, 1788, these entries 
were surveyed by Col. John O'Bannon, and were duly recorded in 
the books of Col. Richard >.nderson, the surveyor of the Virginia 
military district of Ohio. The}' were made under a law of the State 
of Virginia enacted in 1783, and Gen. Washington and his agents 
believed that the warrants, entries, and surveys before mentioned 
should for that reason be returned to the land office of the State of 
Virginia, and this was done on April 20, 1790. 

On December 1, 1790, grants were made by Beverly Randolph, the 
governor of the State of Virginia, to Gen. George Washington, for each 
of said three survey's, under the belief, that, according to the terms of 
the reservation, it was incumbent on the State of Virginia to complete 
the title. 

Congress, on August 10, 1790, confirmed these surveys and again on 
May 13, 1800, Congress confirmed them by an act entitled "An act to 
authorize the issuing of certain patents." 

It would seem from the foregoing that the title to these lands had 
been confirmed in Gen. Washington and that he could not possibly 
lose them by fraud on the part of the officers of the Government of the 
United States, but such is not the case. He did lose them and an 
officer of the Government was a party to the transaction. A man by 
the name of Joseph Kerr, who was a deputy surveyor of the Virginia 
military district of Ohio, being well acquainted with the Washington 
entries, his warrants and his surveys, and also knowing that by inad- 
vertence or through ignorance of the law, Gen. Washington had not 
filed these surveys with the Secretary of War, the said Kerr proceeded 
to secure the legal title of these lands. He covered Gen. Washington's 

riE:'-^ i9:i 



-«-' ESTATK OF GEN. GEORGE WASHTXGTON. 3 

• _entiy and survoy with i.tlior entii s and in so doing hud the audacity 

•^to use Gen. Washington's field notes for this purpose. He die' not 

--*even take the trouble to go out in tlie field and resurvey the land, but 

^ appropriated the field notes as lie found them of recordj in the land 

^-ofhce. 

"^ There were rumors that an effort was being made to steal these 

s lands, and this rumor reached Gen. Washington. He wrote to the 

^local land office and said tliat he proposed to defend his title and would 

jstand a lawsuit before he would lose the land, and the local land 

officer assured him that he was safe and promised to notify him if 

anything occurred. 

Den. Washington died on the 14th day of December, 1799, and on 
the 26th day of February, 1806, this man Kerr, who afterwards 
became a Senator of the United States, made his entry and he made 
it with malice aforethought. 

On the 4th day of Marcli Judge Bushrod Washington sent a letter 
by Chief Justice Marshall to Richmond, asking for these papers, and 
on the 14th day of March a petition of the executors was introduced 
in Congress. These two petitioners were Judge Washington, a 
member of the Supreme Court, and Col. Lawrence Lewis, who was a 
nephew of George W^asliington's, and who had married Nellie Custis. 
This petition was referretl to the Committee on Public Lands, dis- 
cussed in the Committee on the Whole, and Congress concluded that 
it could confirm Gen. Washington's title by general law instead of 
a special law, and with that end in view passed the act of March 3, 
1807. The trouble with this law was that it had no retroactive 
effect. Congress should have cured the cases of conflict between 
locators made between August 10. 1790, and March 2, 1807, but it 
did not, because of the fact that Kerr, on April 20, 1806, had two 
of the surveys patented, and on January 8, 1808, had the third one 
patented, notwithstanding the act of March 3, 1807, giving the 
executors of George W^ashington five years from March 23, 1807, to 
return their surveys and obtain their patents. 

Thus it is seen that the act of March 3, 1807, was of no benefit to 
the estate of Gen. Washington whatever, but was defeated by the 
action of the officers of the United States in issuing patents to Kerr's 
principals. 

Every effort of the heirs of the estate of Gen. W^ashington to secure 
relief has met with failure. 

Your committee is, therefore, of the opinion that the bill should 
pass as amended. 

The executors are of the opinion that the land is, at the present 

time, even with all tlie timber removed, worth more than $100 an 

« acre, and that they are entitled to compensation for it at this rate. 

This would mean an appropriation out of the Federal Treasury of 

$305,100. 

We can not take this view of the case. In the first place, the 
Government very seldom pays interest on these old claims, and we 
do not feel like establishing a precedent in this case. Attention is 
also called to tlie fact that while Gen. AVashington probably paid 
taxes on this land for the first 18 years, his estate lias not paid taxes 
since that time. He valued the land in his will at $5 per acre. 

Hon. Kobert E. Lee. jr., has made such a clear and concise state- 
ment of this case that your committee has decided to add the same 
' to this report, and make it a part thereof. 



4 ESTATE OF GEN. GEORGE WASHIXGTOIS". 

THE FACTS. 

The undersigned, Robert E. Lee, jr., a citizen and resident of Burke, Fairfax 
County, in the State of Virginia, was, on the 29th day of October, 1907, duly appointed 
and qualified as administrator de bonis uon. with the will annexed, upon the estate of 
Gen. George Washington, of Mount Vernon, and said trust is in full force and unad- 
ministered. 

That Gen. \\'ashington completed the preparation of his last will and testament 
on the 9th day of July, 1799, and with it he prepared an inventory and schedule of 
his estate and a document explanatory of the situation of the various parts of his 
estate. That this inventory and schedule was filed with his will by his original 
executors for probate, and on their motion was accepted and recorded as the proper 
inventory and schedule of his estate. That in said inventory he mentioned and 
stated that he owned 3,051 acres of land in the Northwest Territory, in the Virginia 
military district, and that its value was $16,251. That that was its value at that time 
when it stood in unbroken forest, and it has constantly increased in value until the 
present time when, estimating only the naked value of the land without improvements, 
and including the value of the original timber which stood thereon, it is worth over 
$100 per acre. 

That the history of Gen. Washington's title to said real estate and the account of 
the loss to his estate of the same is as follows; 

On December 7, 1763, Lord Dunmore, then royal governor of the colony of Virginia, 
issued a land warrant to John Rootes, for 3,000 acres of land, locatable on the lands of 
the colony northwest of the Ohio River. That this warrant was issued in accordance 
with a proclamation of His Majesty, George III, King of England, in 1763. That 
prior to May 1, 1779, Gen. George Washington purchased this warrant of John Rootes, 
and took an assignment thereof. That on January 5, 1785, the Legislature of the 
State of Virginia passed a joint resolution which provided that all persons who had 
served in the armies of the United States from May 1, 1779, until the close of the war 
between Great Britain and America and had a land warrant in his own right, or by 
assignment, before May 1, 1779, issued agreeable to the proclamation of the King of 
Great Britain in 1763, might exchange the same with the register of the land office for 
a warrant, which he should be permitted to locate on vacant land, reserved on the 
western side of the Ohio River, for officers and soldiers on Continental line. 

That in pursuance of said resolution Gen. Washington, on February 14, 1785, ob- 
tained a 3,000-acre Continental line land warrant from the land office of the State of 
Virginia in exchange for the John Rootes warrant. 

That some time prior to the summer of 1787, Gen. Washington purchased of one 
Thomas Cope, a warrant for 100 acres of land issued to him for services in the Conti- 
nental line from Virginia and took a proper assignment thereof. That in the summer 
of 1787, Gen. Washington placed these two warrants in the hands of Col. John O'Ban- 
non, a deputy surveyor of the Virginia military district of Ohio, for location, and 
directed their location in the Virginia military district, northwest of the Ohio River. 
That Col. John O'Bannon made the following entries of land on said warrant: 

On January 17, 1788, No. 1650, 839 acres in what is now Franklin Township, Cler- 
mont County, Ohio. 

On May 13, 1788, No. 1765, 1,235 acres on the Little Miami River, 3^ miles above the 
mouth of its east fork, in what is now Miami Township, Clermont County, Ohio. 

These two entries were made on the warrant for 3,000 acres, numbered 3753. On 
May 12, 1778, Col. O'Bannon entered for Gen. Washington No. 1775, for 977 acres, 848 
acres of which now lies in Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio, and 129 acres of 
which now lies in Anderson Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, and 926 acres of which 
was made on warrant No. 3750 for 3,000 acres, and 51 acres of which was made on the 
Thomas Cope warrant for 100 acres. 

That afterwards, on April 4, 1788, there was made for Gen. Washington a survey, 
No. 1650, for 839 acres on the entry 1650. That on May 27, 1788, there was made for 
Gen. Washington a survey, No. 1765, on his entry of that number, for 1,235 acres. 

On May 26, 1788, there was made for Gen. Washington a survey, No. 1775, on the 
entry of that number, for 977 acres. That these three'entries and surveys were made 
by Col. John O'Bannon and were duly recorded in the books of Col. Richard Ander- 
son, the surveyor of the Virginia military district of Ohio. 

That said entries and surveys were made under a law of the State of Virginia enacted 
in October, 1783, and Gen. Washington^ and his agents were under the impression 
that the warrants, entries, and surveys before mentioned should, for that reason, be 
returned to the land office of the State of Virginia, which was done some time prior to 
April 20, 1790. 

That on December 1, 1790, grants were made by Beverly Randolph, the governor 
of the State of Virginia, to Gen. George Washington for each of said three surveys. 



ESTATE Ul' GEX. GEOKGE WASlllNGTOX. i) 

under the belief that, accordiuii to the terms of the reservation, it was incumbent on 
the State of Vii-ginia to complete the title. 

That these entries and surveys were well known to the locators and iSurveyoi"s in the 
Virginia military district of Ohio, and also the fact.s that they were made on a resolu- 
tion warrant. 

That these surveys were confirmed by Congress, in the act of August 10, 1790 (vol. 
] , p. 182), entitled "An act to enal)le the officers and soldiers of the Virginia military 
line, on Continental establishment, to obtain titles to certain lands lying northwest of 
the Ohio River, between the Little Miami and Scioto" in its reference to section 3, 
to lands already located. 

That these locations of Gen. Washington were also confirmed on May 13, 1800, by 
the act of Congress of that date (vol. 2, p. 80), entitled " An act to authorize the issuing 
of certain patents." 

That notwithstanding these facts, one Joseph Kerr, a deputy sin-veyor of the Vir- 
ginia military district of Ohio, well knowing that the Washington entries, warrants, 
and surveys, before described, had not l)een filed with the Secretary of War, on Feb- 
ruary 26, 1806, made three entries, completely covering the said Washington locations, 
and in making said entries used the field-note descriptions in the three Washington 
surveys. 

That said Joseph Kerr, deputy siuve\or, covered Gen. Washington's entry and sur- 
vey No. 1650 with one for the same number of acres, No. 4847, on part of Gen. John 
Nevill's warrant No. 937, belonging to his estate. He covered Gen. Washington's 
entry and survey No. 1765 with one for 1,066§ acres on part of the same warrant No. 937, 
belonging to the estate of Gen. John Nevill and numbered 4848. 

He covered Gen. Washington's survey No. 1775, for 977 acres, with one numbered 
4862 for the same number of acres on a part of a warrant. No. 107, the property of Henry 
Massie. 

On May 20, 1806, Joseph Kerr, deputy surveyor, made a survey, No. 4847, for 839 
acres covering Nevill's said entry of the same number, and in so doing used Gen. Wash- 
ington's field notes for his survey No. 1650. 

On May 22, 1806, the same Joseph Kerr made a siu-vey. No. 4848, on his entry of that 
number for 1,066^ acres of land and thereby covered Gen. Washington's entry and sur- 
very No. 1765 and used his field notes for that purpose. 

That said two siu-veys purported to have been made for Gen. John Nevill, who had 
departed this life testate Jtily 20, 1803, having his domicile in Pittsburg, Allegheny 
County, Pa., leaving his son Presley Nevill, and his daughter, Amelia Craig, wife of 
Isaac Craig, his residuary devisees. 

That on March 14, 1806, Judge Bushrod Washington and Lawrence Lewis, executors 
of Gen. Washington's estate, filed their petition in Congress (House of Representa- 
tives) in behalf of his devisees, praying that an act might be ])assed confirming the title 
of said executors to the Washington survevs herein mentioned as numbered 1650, 
1765, and 1775. 

This petition was referred to the Committee on Public Lands of the House, which 
reported and as a result the act of March 3, 1807 (vol. 5, U. S. Stats., p. 437), entitled 
"An act authorizing patents to issue for lands located and surveyed by virtue of certain 
Virginia resolution warrants," was passed bj' both Houses and approved by the Presi- 
dent. That the object and purpose of this act was to enable the executors of Gen. 
George Washington to perfect their title by patent, to the survej's 1650, 1765, and 1775 
herein, but notwithstanding this act, the said Joseph Kerr, on April 30, 1807, procured 
a patent to issue to Presley Nevill and Amelia Craig, devisees of John Nevill, for said 
survey No. 4847, Gen. Washington's survej- No. 1650, and on the same day procured 
a patent to issue to Presley Nevill and Amelia Craig, devisees of John Nevill, for said 
survey 4848, Gen. Washington's survey 1765. 

That on the 8th day of January, 1808, the said Joseph Kerr procured a patent to be 
issued for said survey 4862, Gen. Washington's survey No. 1775, to Henry Massie. 
That on the 4th day of March, 1809, the said Joseph Kerr purchased said two sur- 
veys, 4847 and 4848, of Presley Nevill and Amelia Craig, devisees of John Nevill, and 
on March 17, 1815, obtained a deed therefor from said Nevill and Craig, which is re- 
corded in deed book No. 12, pages 89, 90, and 91, of the record of deeds of Clermont 
County, Ohio. That the present owners of the said two surveys claim and hold theii- 
title from said Joseph Kerr, who, on December 10, 1814, became a Senator of the United 
States from the State of Ohio. 

That Henry Massie, the patentee of the said survey 4862, Gen. Washington's survey 
No. 1775, sold and disposed of the same and the present owners of said survey claim 
and hold title derived from the said Henry Massie. 

That the said two warrants for 3,000 acres and 100 acres, issued originally to John 
Rootes and Thomas Cope, respectively, were the property of Gen. Washington at 



6 ESTATE OF GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

• 

the time he relinquished all claim for his services during the Revolutionary War, and 
when he received the sum of $64,415 for his expenses only during the same war. 

That Gen. Washington died in the belief that the 3,051 acres of land embraced in 
in said surveys 1650, 1765, and 1775 were his, and that the values thereof would be 
realized on to his estate and devisees, but in fact nothing was ever realized out of the 
same to his estate, on account of the operations of the said Joseph Kerr, with the war- 
rants of John Nevill and Henry Massie. 

That the estate of Gen. Washington has been left with said warrants wholly unsatis- 
fied, and has wholly lost said lands and the entire value thereof. 

That on August 31, 1852, Congress passed the scrip law of that date (vol. 10, U. S. 
Stats., p. 143), entitled "An act to make further provisions for the satisfaction of 
Virginia land warrants." 

That this act was passed in pursuance of a resolution of the Virginia Legislature, 
adopted April 12, 1852 (Va. Acts 1852, p. 316), which requested the sanie. That 
after the passage of said act of August 31, 1852, before recited, on December 6, 1852, 
the Virginia Legislature passed another resolution (Va. Acts 1852-53, p. 357), and 
accepted said act of Congress of August 31, 1852. 

That by the action of the Virginia Legislature in the two above resolutions and by 
said act of Congress of August 31, 1852, better known as the scrip law, the obligation 
of the United States to issue scrip in lieu of said warrants, became a part of the public 
debt of the United States authorized by law, and as such could not be questioned or 
affected by any action of Congress. 

That the last action of the original executors of Gen. Washington, in the settlement 
of his estate, was taken many years prior to the passage of the scrip law of 1852. 

That at any time between August 31, 1852, and March 3, 1900, the estate of Gen. 
Washington might have commuted said warrants into scrip, but on March 3, 1899, in 
an act of that date entitled "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses 
of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, nineteen hundred, and for other 
purposes," it was provided that all Virginia military warrants, not surrendered to the 
Secretary of the Interior within 12 months from the passage of said act, March 3, 1899, 
should be forever barred and invalid. That Gen. Washington's two warrants herein 
described, to wit: The Rootes warrant for 3,000 acres and the Cope warrant for 100 
acres were never presented to or surrendered to the Secretary of the Interior, for the 
want of any representatives of his to make such surrender. 

Your petitioner respectfully states that in his judgment said act of March 3, 1899, 
in so far as it attempts to extinguish said warrants, is in violation of section 4 of the 
fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States. That the estate of 
Gen. Washington has lost both the lands covered by said warrants, and the warrants 
themselves, and that by reason of the acts of Joseph Kerr, sanctioned by officers of the 
United States, his executors were deprived of the right to return his surveys 1650, 
1765, and 1775 within five years from March 23, 1807, and to obtain patents thereon. 

That had Congress prior to F'ebruary 26, 1806, enacted the famous proviso of the act 
of March 2, 1807, entitled "An act to extend the time for locating Virginia military land 
warrants for returning surveys thereon to the office of the Secretary of the Department 
of War, and appropriating lands for the use of schools in the Virginia military reserva- 
tion, in lievi of these heretofore appropriated," which forbade, after the passage of said 
act, locating of lands previously surveyed, the title of Gen. Washington's estate to said 
three surveys, 1650, 1765, and 1775, would have been preserved and that the lands 
embraced therein would have been realized to his estate. 

That said proviso remained in force from March 2, 1807, until December 31, 1851, 
a period of over 44 years, and protected all first locations made after its enactment. 
That Gen. Washington's locations on surveys 1650, 1765, and 1775 were all first locations 
and made upon lands which had never been located upon before. 

That in equity and justice the estate of Gen. Washington should be placed in the 
same position as" though the proviso of the act of March 2, 1807, had been a part of the 
act of August 10, 1790, which opened the Virginia military district to location, as it 
was a part of the muniments of title in said district, for over 44 years after March 3, 
1807. 

That the personal representative of the estate of Gen. George Washington could not 
recover those lands from the present owners nor would it be right that he should do 
so. That the estate of Gen. Washington is the only landowner in the Virginia military 
district of Ohio which lost its lands by reason of the ofliicers of the United States per- 
mitting other parties to obtain title to his locations during the time his executors had 
in which to return his surveys for patent. That Gen. Washington was so engaged 
in public business from the close of the War of Independence until his death, that he 
was compelled to neglect his private business, or intrust it to agents. That he and 
they were under the belief that Virginia having made the law for locations in the Vir- 



ESTATE OF GEN, GEORGE WASHINGTON. 7 

ginia military district, in what is now the State of Ohio, and having reserved it for her 
soldiers, would have to (•omj)lete the title to these locations and therefore hu< surveys 
were not returned to the Secretary of War in his lifetime, nor by his executors i)rior 
to March 3, 1807. That these omissions, however, were all cured by the act of March 
3, 1S07, hut at the same time, it was impossible for his executors to have cured their 
title under the act of March 3, 1807, before referred to, because of the issuing of the 
patents to the devivsees of John Nevill and to Henry Massie. 

That at the time of the passage of the act of March 3, 1807, Gen. Washington's 
executors still had two years under the act of March 23, 1804, to return these surveys 
to the Secretary of War, and were not in any default in respect to these surveys. 

That all the facts herein set forth except the values of the lands in question are 
matters of record as to which there can be no dispute and controversy whatever. 
That as to the values herein stated, the same are reasonable and just and can be 
established by more than 50 of the reputable freeholders of the vicinage, com])etent 
to judge. 

Wherefore he submits that the bill for the relief of the estate of Gen. Washington 
should pass. 

Robert E. Lee, Jr., 
Administrator de bonis non, irith the irlll unnexedofGen. George Washington. 

o 



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